Earth & Environmental Sciences at Lehigh

information about the department

Context

Earth and Environmental Sciences (EES) is a diverse department that blends contributions from geologists, ecologists, and environmental scientists. Our goal is to stimulate enquiry and learning about the fundamental physical, chemical, geological, and biological processes that shape Earth's natural environment. We seek to promote understanding of Earth systems and their components by supporting geological and biological study of how these systems function and interact. The department's fundamental work lies in basic research and field-based experiential education, but we also actively cooperate with other students and scholars to examine the ramifications of human interaction with the environment.

EES was formed in 1991 through the merger of faculty from the Geological Sciences Department with environmental biology faculty from the Biology Department. Since then we have worked to develop innovative programs in environmental science while maintaining strengths in studies of the solid Earth and environmental change. Along with Civil and Environmental Engineering, EES is one of two core departments in Lehigh's Environmental Initiative, housed on one of Lehigh's newest buildings, the award-winning STEPS facility.

The EES Department is part of Lehigh University's College of Arts and Sciences. Lehigh is an independent, nondenominational, coeducational university. Founded in 1865, it has approximately 5,000 undergraduates within its three major colleges: Arts and Sciences, Engineering and Applied Science, and Business and Economics. There are approximately 2,100 students enrolled in various graduate programs and in the graduate-only College of Education. The 700-acre campus includes superb athletic facilities, a health club and cultural venues, including the Zoellner Arts Center.

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (pop. 75,000) is located in the Lehigh Valley, 50 miles north of Philadelphia and 90 miles west of New York City; best access is via Interstate 78, U.S. Route 22, or Lehigh Valley International Airport (airport code ABE). Founded in 1741, Bethlehem has a rich cultural heritage in the Moravian tradition. Historical buildings have been well preserved giving the community a charming Colonial atmosphere. The Lehigh Valley (Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton, combined population of some 822,000) is the chief commercial and industrial center for east-central Pennsylvania and is the third largest population center in the state after Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Study

For undergraduates, the EES Department offers BA and BS degrees as well as a minor. The accessible BA degree in Earth and Environmental Sciences is ideal for students interested in geology, environmental science, and/or ecology but having career goals in areas such as law, journalism, business, and government. The flexible BA degree in EES also makes it easy for students to pursue a double major or design a degree that matches their interests. For students interested in technical careers in research or industry, the department offers a BS degree in EES. Finally, EES offers a straight-forward minor program that can include a significant component of field-based learning.

For graduate students, the department offers M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Earth and Environmental Sciences. M.S. programs typically require two years of full-time effort and a Ph.D. about four years.

Faculty research programs span numerous disciplines within the fields of ecology, environmental science, and geology. The department has particular depth of expertise the areas of the solid Earth and environmental change. The intermediate size of the department (15 faculty, three support staff, several postdocs and research scientists) and its range of active research programs provide an intimate atmosphere in which students receive extensive experience with diverse analytical and theoretical approaches to the study of geological, ecological, and environmental processes. We usually have about 20 to 25 students in the EES graduate program who have come to us from many states and several foreign countries.

In recent years, our graduates have been very successful in finding employment in environmental consulting firms and oil companies, as post-doctoral researchers, in governmental agencies, and as faculty at colleges and universities.

Facilities

EES was long housed in Williams Hall, a venerable building that has hosted much Lehigh history. In July of 2010, we moved into the new STEPS building along with other components of Lehigh's Environmental Initiative (STEPS - Science, Technology, Environment, Policy, and Society). This state-of-the-art LEED-certified green building was designed by the architectural firm of Bohlin, Cywinski and Jackson and is proving to be an exciting new addition to Lehigh's intellectual and campus life.

Equipment for ecological research includes microscopes, environmental chambers, centrifuges, sampling nets, current meters, incubators, and autoclaves. The Department has a long history of multidisciplinary research in experimental and comparative studies of aquatic communities and ecosystems. Faculty operate facilities capable of a wide variety of analyses relevant to aqueous biogeochemistry, and also maintain automated meteorological and hydrological facilities as well as terrestrial and water-column instrumentation for measuring solar UV radiation.

To support research in paleoecology and paleoclimatology, we maintain sediment-coring and other sampling equipment, as well as labs for sample-preparation and analysis in areas such as tree-ring studies, palynology, and other high-resolution records in sediments and peat.

For research in the areas of geological science, EES houses a geochronology laboratory dedicated to Ar-Ar and U-Th/He analyses; a stable-isotope laboratory equipped to handle a range of geological and environmental materials; a geochemistry facility that includes an ICP/MS; lab facilities outfitted for biogeochemical analyses; and standard petrographic facilities, including cathodoluminescence and camera lucida digitizing apparatus. Geophysical equipment includes a complete paleomagnetism laboratory including cryogenic magnetometer and shielded room; a seismology laboratory equipped for data acquisition and processing at a range of scales, including multi-channel seismograph and ground-penetrating radar; and other field geophysical equipment including a gravimeter, proton precession magnetometer; and borehole logging equipment. Excellent sample characterization facilities are also available on campus in the Materials Sciences department (electron probe, TEM, SEM, and much more).

The Department's computing facilities include a variety of workstations, high-performance computing clusters, networked microcomputer laboratories, and numerous stand-alone PC's and Macintoshes. Departmental computers support a variety of GIS, climate and ecological modeling, and remote-sensing software packages. The university supports high-speed networking to offices, labs, and classrooms and provides access to high-performance workstations and computing clusters for computationally intensive tasks.

Minkai Jiang (Ph.D.). On the history and evidence of the Colwell index in quantifying environmental predictability, and its applications in characterizing precipitation predictability in the conterminous United States. (advisor: Felzer)

Long Li (Ph.D.). Estimates of carbon and nitrogen input fluxes in subduction zones and investigation of natural and human-induced environmental changes from lake sediments using carbon and nitrogen concentrations and isotope compositions. (advisor: Bebout).

James Cascione (M.S.).Insights to the character and possible seasonal evolution of the subglacial drainage system of the Matanuska Glacier, Alaska; as determined by dye-injection experiments. (advisor: Evenson).

Joseph W. Corona (M.S.). The purple tide: A case study regarding the effect of elevation on the patch dynamics of Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria), in the Great Swamp of Quakertown (Advisor: Windham).

Jordan D. Vaughn (M.S.). Two studies on the accuracy of sedimentary paleomagnetic remanence, the effects of rapid deposition in a flume study and remanence of the Perforada Formationof Baja California. (Advisor: Kodama).